Currently, just four men have scored more goals in a Liverpool shirt than Robbie Fowler.

During his two spells with the red half of Merseyside, the striker found the net on 183 occasions, which is 11 more than club legend Kenny Dalglish.

Fowler surpassed the Scot's total of 172 when Liverpool visited struggling West Bromwich Albion nine years ago today.

Deep in a relegation battle, the hosting Baggies were in desperate need of the three points, but they made the worst possible start against Rafael Benitez's men.

There was just seven minutes on the clock when Paul Robinson failed to deal with Xabi Alonso's pass forward. The ball broke for Djibril Cisse, who in turn crossed for Fowler to roll in his 173rd goal for the club at the back post.

Speaking after the encounter, Fowler said of his feat: "To get anywhere near Kenny is an achievement which I am greatly proud of.

"I thought the chance had passed me by and to get the call in January asking me to come back here. I am talking about being happy to surpass Kenny, but I'm just happy about being here.

"Since I've been back I haven't scored as many as what I would have liked, but I've been relatively pleased and happy with the performances."

The points were then secured for the away side in the 38th minute as Cisse turned goalscorer.

The French striker, who had faced criticism for his recent performances, collected a 60-yard pass from Alonso, before going on to round West Brom goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak to leave himself with the easiest of finishes.

After the final whistle, Benitez, who had seen his side win for the fourth time in succession, said: "We need to keep going until the end of the season.

"You cannot think it will be impossible and you just have to think about winning the next game. We know it will be really difficult as Man Utd keep winning but our idea it to carry on winning as well so we are sure to finish third and maybe second."

WEST BROM: Kuszczak; Albrechtsen, Watson (Clement), C Davies, Robinson; Kamara (Gera), Johnson, Wallwork, Greening; Kanu (Campbell), Ellington

LIVERPOOL: Reina; Finnan, Hyypia, Carragher, Riise; Alonso, Sissoko, Kewell, Cisse (Kromkamp); Crouch (Morientes), Fowler (Garcia)